Outside The Asylum

The last in my series on Subsidiarity and the Culture of Death. Just taxation, should be all from just three sources: Tariffs, Tribute, and User Fees. Property owners, Business owners, and certain others use the majority of services that Governments have as absolute duties. Property owners first- Tribute. This is mainly about police services, social services, and the commons within a community. As such- counties and cities should rightly collect this tax- and no higher form of government should be involved in the initial collection. Local property taxes should do. Then business owners- small businesses are good for government, as they reduce the need for social services. But big businesses are bad for government- they externalize costs to the rest of the community, and this is where Tariffs come into play. Counties and cities, once again, should be the primary collectors of this tax at their borders. This can be done with toll roads. Finally- Usage taxes. Special serv...

Bet you thought Roe V. Wade was only about abortion. It isn't. Oh, abortion is what it is known for- but it had a secondary effect. It expanded the Interstate Commerce Clause to Intrastate Commerce. It claims that Congress has the right to regulate business transactions that occur entirely internally to a State. This is a MAJOR grab of federal power- and while not the first, prevents lower and smaller government from taking absolute power locally. Subsidiarity is a Catholic ethical concept that can be simply stated as "Big Government creates corruption, so any just duty of government should be carried out with the smallest economic unit of government available". Austrian economists have a tendency to agree- that's what SMALL government is all about. So therefore- even pro-choice libertarians, should seek the reversal of Roe V. Wade. Not because it's against abortion- but because it's against subsidiarity.

This will be the first of three articles- and this is the only realistic one- on how to move from the culture of greed, culture of death we currently have, to a culture of justice as far as taxes are concerned. A recent post on facebook got me thinking about this in a new way for me; on why consumption taxes are more just than income taxes, but like the gay agenda, I do not believe the evidence leads to the conclusion most libertarians and fiscal conservatives think it does- because like usual, these groups are thinking "what's my situation and how can I move the pain to somebody else?" when what we should be really thinking is "how can we band together as Americans, and make this sustainable for all?". My fellow Americans, we have a debt habit. We are being unjust to our own future, charging ahead on the credit cards our children will have to pay. And we're making sure there are fewer children- so each child will not only have to pay for his parents, b...

The Economic Cost of Abortion and the generation immediately preceding it is staggering. The lost of 30% of Generation X & Y has caused a major depression, and by 2037, Social Security will be flat broke. Here is a modest, four step proposal to fix the problem: Step 1. Make FICA a flat tax on all earnings, with no cap. Step 2. Raise retirement age for non-disability payments to 88. Step 3. Make abortion illegal. Step 4. Issue 12 million green cards for illegal aliens already living here, and 42 million green cards for new immigrants, to replace our working age population murdered by abortion.

Though this is a review of Rob Bell's Book Love Wins , I'm going to start out with six much more Catholic Quotes: "The Bible, sacred Tradition, and the writings of the earliest Christians testify that the Church teaches with Jesus’ authority. In this age of countless competing religions, each clamoring for attention, one voice rises above the din: the Catholic Church, which the Bible calls "the pillar and foundation of truth" (1 Tim. 3:15). " Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth , Catholic Answers "The need for integrity obviously becomes necessary after death, for entering into perfect and complete communion with God. Those who do not possess this integrity must undergo purification. This is suggested by a text of St Paul. The Apostle speaks of the value of each person's work which will be revealed on the day of judgement and says: "If the work which any man has built on the foundation [which is Christ] survives, he will receive a reward. If a...

In a pro-life discussion recently, I suggested that we could eliminate the deficit & provide full funding for WIC for every child between conception and 5 years old with a mere 5% increase in the top marginal tax rate. That got me the comment that it would raise real income taxes to more than 51% on the wealthy- but tax brackets don't work that way. Here is how tax brackets *really* work. , with a handy calculator that I will deconstruct below- but of course, this leaves out the now nearly 20% FICA taxes, right? Not quite- FICA doesn't have an infinitely large top tax bracket- FICA ends at $106800 of income- it tops out at $21300 per individual earner. So let's do some calculations on what demographers now tell us is the top of the upper middle class- a single businessman, sole proprietor, earning $500,000/year (to earn more you have to be a hedge fund manager or have a lot of capital in investments). According to the Calculator on the MoneyChimp site that m...